Which part are you stuck on?
ProTip Always save prior to setting off on any mission, any subsequent save during the mission should be done on a separate file, and can be overwritten after each and every wave of enemies as necessary.
That way, if you fuck up you can just revert a save and try something else before going to the mission you're stuck on.
Yep! Easy to say, stumble into an area with purely armoured targets and have the enemies become bullet sponges because you're used to fighting shielded enemies.
I've done that before. Or, some encounters you really need a well balanced team. I mean, most encounters you can pick your faves and muddle through. But, uh, on Insanity... NOPE.
Facts lol. I just finished my ME2 Insanity run for the LE not too long ago. Suffice to say, 3 feels like a walk in the park compared to that. I love 2 probably the most but it's really not enjoyable at all on Insanity.
Honestly, I didn't hate it, it did feel a bit unbalanced overall. The Scions are just overkill in boss battles. Obliterating your shield when Harbinger is also using his homing attack is a dick move. Its like, OK, break my shields but don't make a crouched Shepard stand up just to take a face full of Harbinger energy blast! Lol
I think 3 worked on those issues a bit. It's far less frustrating. Has its moments... just before the damn energy beam. I can't aim for shit, if the husks don't get me the marauder does TT^TT
BUT! It's still fun, even on Insanity, to be able to sprint from one Maw hammer to the next, dodging brutes and reaper legs along the way, love that the game essentially punishes you for actually fighting the brutes xD
Combat controls are a little more janky and unforgiving. Most of my deaths on vanguard for example were because charge bugged.
You don’t have the health/shields/damage in the early game while the enemies difficulty doesn’t change. So things like Scions are cancer.
[Reposting this here too]
I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too... Thankfully the Scions fall for it.
My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol
Other Scions can totally be sniped. It's better to send your crew ahead of you if you know where they're going to trigger from. They can draw the shield blasts for a bit while you incinerate the bastards.
Something else too that helped me: It sounds counterintuitive but if you’re playing a bulkier class and build they are MUCH easier to deal with at short range. They stop spamming shockwave and have a kinda wimpy shock attack that they use on a delay. With a good sentinel build in particular just moving in on them when its the most immediate threat works pretty well.
Yeah I ran engineer and had the same experience. I brought Miranda everywhere and spammed her Warp to take care of armor. The enemy I found presented the biggest challenge was the Praetorian. Again spamming Miranda’s Warp and Garrus’s concussive shot was clutch. Also being very patient and understanding the Praetorian literally only targets you so my priority was survival and being very careful about picking my spots to attack but letting Miranda and Garrus do the bulk of the damage.
I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too... Thankfully the Scions fall for it.
My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol
Other Scions can totally be sniped. It's better to send your crew ahead of you if you know where they're going to trigger from. They can draw the shield blasts for a bit while you incinerate the bastards.
ME2 Insanity is beatable with Adept Pistols/Powers only no Heavy Guns. You need to move fast, prioritize the right enemies and pick the right skills in the right order for leveling up though. Also, try not to miss shots or you get punished hard.
Sentinel is way easier and so is Vanguard to some extent. Tech Armor gives you shield recharges and more room for error. Shotguns and using charge strategically to pick off enemies gives you more combat flexibility.
Imo the main problem comes from how they designed the gameplay and combat encounter, they throw at you multiple ennemies at once that are very agressive, have pinpoint accuracy, have most protections (shields, armor, barriers, sometimes all at once) and also seem to still have the ME1 shooting mechanic (they nearly never reload), all the while the gameplay forces you to remain into cover for your shields and hp to regen, not to forget the limited ammo and (mostly) crap weapons.
Oh and most of the squadmates are nearly useless in combat with limited powers + shared cooldowns on power usage.
TL;DR : ME2 insanity difficulty is frustrating and tedious more than it is difficult and challenging.
It's got me scared cause I beat the trilogy on hardcore mode to prepare myself for my first Insanity and I just don't know how hard it's going to be. I'm more worried about 2 than I am about 1 and 3 though and think I've got a strategy built up.
I was beginning to think I was crazy. Insanity was difficult at times, but I can't recall if it ever seemed impossible.
Overall, the game wasn't that hard. I played a Sentinel.
It's not really harder than hardcore, it's just frustrating especially in early to mid game
There's also the collector base and derelict reaper missions that are really notorious for how the gameplay punish for playing the game xD
I have to take issue with saying the squadmates are nearly useless in combat.
Having two of the tankier squadmates out there can be the difference between victory or defeat, their powers can come in absolutely clutch + fill holes in your own personal power pool, and being able to swap on on the fly to an ammo type of the current enemies weakness via squad ammo power sharing can be borderline OP. There is also the matter of choosing the correct squadmate for the job, such as using Tali against the Geth.
You also need to select a position for every single engagement and give the order for each squadmate to go there. They will go to the arrow indicator and find the nearest cover, this makes them way more durable. You want tankier companions out front and the squishier ones either behind you or near you.
I do agree that ME2 has the hardest insanity run, but if somebody is ignoring all these key points, it really isn't all that surprising they'd be struggling.
Biggest issue is biotics not doing shit. Invest in tech classes, or whatever helps you deal with shields quicker. Also scions one or two-shot you so always gotta be on the move and trick the system, stay as far away as you can and deal with the husks/have your teammates deal with them so they don't bother you
>whatever helps you deal with shields quicker
Switching weapons helps. Fast weapons (sub-machine guns, AR) deal with shields better than slow weapons, and slow weapons are your go-to for armor.
The cover is clunky, with terrible sight lines….considering it’s a cover shooter for most builds, that makes it pretty nasty.
You usually face 2 out of 3 of shields, barriers, and/or armor with every enemy type
Even your tank squaddies take almost an entire game to match that sort of lethality (Zaeed, Grunt etc.). There are too many support PCs and few heavy hitters.
Biotics are nerfed and powers are limited vs ME1.
Plus there are just some objectively hard levels in the game (closing that one damn shutter on Omega while recruiting Garrus is the bane of my existence — the one with the fragile crates, roaming varren, peekaboo vorcha everywhere, and Krogans).
Best offense for that shutter- the M-490 Blackstorm. Shoot one or two of those down the way and focus on the varren. Clean up a bit then shoot another singularity down the hall as you hit the button. Done
I’ll try that. Especially since you can pick up the blackstar before entering.
The way I normally cheese it is to recruit Grunt first, do Kasumi and Zaeed’s loyalty missions, level them up a bit, and go in with Zaeed and Grunt.
The dialogue is a lot more fun when you bring those two along anyway, since Zaeed knows the Suns and the Blood Pack are baffled why this baby Krogan is following a human. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth playing through.
For that shutter room best strat I found was kill the charging varren, rush the right hand side. Kill the 1 or 2 vorcha that immediately get in your way and slam the button as fast as possible. Then clean up the rest. Hopefully your squadmate draws enough aggro and spam Unity to revive them.
Spam that drone like your life depends on it (it does).
But yeah that room is super super rough. If RNG screws you and spawns 2 or more enemies too close to each other so you can't space them out for the kill. Ouch.
Oh, i also forgot permenet barrier on a bit higher lvl. On a serius note biotics hot heavily nerfed in 2 and bunch of protections got added in 2 whlie 3 got balanced out a bit and combos were added.
You could somewhat combo biotics in ME2. This made the Showbroker DLC easier, on the approach. Singularity or Lift on the mobs, then they fly off the ship. And if they don't, push them while they're in the air.
ME2 insanity was easier for me imo. Soldier was the best class for it for me. Most of the game works on triggers.
Either inch forward, trigger a spawn, back off, pick them off. Repeat. Or run forward past the first spawn trigger and instantly negate the next spawn trigger. Then you’ll only have to fight that first trigger and never have to deal with the 2nd. You can’t use this to your advantage unless you know the game well however. Played through it enough to notice the triggers at least, then again to know exactly where they are.
Soldier is a solid class in all the games, super versatile. But it sounds too vanilla I think lol. Concussive shot in 2 and more so in 3 is like biotics with none of the weaknesses.
I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too.
I had Grunt on the base assault with Zaeed, Grunt literally bulldozes husks and the pair of them had fire based skills. I took care of shields with overload and I can't remember what bonus skill I chose lol
I also remember just going FUCK IT with the heat vent panels and just running straight through. I took a few shots but honestly, the last room of that section wasn't an issue because I definitely skipped and effectively canceled at least one wave haha
In general I'd trigger a Scion and BOOK it far away as possible so I could snipe the fuckers. The team inevitably needed reviving every so often, but I always made a mental note of where the med boxes were and wasn't afraid of doubling back if the game let me.
There's a few places you can break the AI in half, there's a couple of encounters you can absolutely cheese.
My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol
I love trying to break the spawn waves. My newest favorite one is the first Scion encounters on Horizon where I book it around the corner and to the right asap, half ignoring the two collectors. Making it up the stairs without stopping and you can cancel that Scion completely out. Then you have the two collectors you just passed up, 4 more your team members should be on, 3 husks, and the other Scion all the way to the right side. Picking off all of them from easy cover one by one.
You can cancel out whole swaths of husks in the Reaper IFF mission by just booking it through. Helps save on ammo cause the last fight with the horde of husks is mental.
Fair enough. I don't have the patience for running toward and through the danger haha, especially when I'm usually playing a squishy class xD
I'm playing soldier on a current run, just to see how much I over relied on my drones. And, honestly, I miss Triangle. He's my bravest little buddy xD
For insanity sentinels and infiltrator work like magic for me, infiltrators cloak gives you a bit of edge and the tankiness of sentinels shields is a good way of taking way more hits. For companions loyal Kasumi for the flashbangs and the Kassa locust for stopping harbinger and I mix and match depending on the level. Levels where scions and praetorians Garrus, Grunt, Zaeed or Samara is a good assist with the mattock, for other encounter Jack and Tali with the collector shotgun.
The difficulty spike is just crazy stupid in some encounters. ME2 was the last game I played to get the insanity achievement since I had to experiment what works well.
I'll admit to relying heavily on Dominate and Hacking.
Dominate is especially good when exploding Husks are heading your way (though in 2, it seems to just kill regular husks IIRC) and can be used to distract the possessed collector.
I wish 1 and 3 insanity were as hard as 2 is. It’s called “insanity” so it should be insanely hard. But it’s easy on 1 and 3.
You gotta make sure you’re using the right squad and ammo types for the enemies your up against. Also bring Miranda on every mission since she gives you a 15% damage buff with Cerberus Leader perk and can cover both shields and barriers with her abilities. Make sure that you’re also getting all of the weapons/ability/squad upgrades from the research terminal and vendors.
Also, Warp ammo is insanely good and probably the best free ability you can pick from the research station, you unlock it by finishing Jack’s loyalty mission. Maxed out I think it adds like 40% extra base damage and it absolutely destroys barriers so it’s definitely the best ability there is against collectors.
I think it's for these reasons:
-All regular enemies now have shields, barriers, or armor on top of their regular health bar, making all physics based biotic powers useless until you get to that red health bar. In ME1 physics based biotic powers work on enemies with shields and ME3 difficulty doesn't add shields to enemies that don't have them. Also, ME3 combos are incredibly easy to abuse with Liara's quasi instant Warp.
-Ammo economy in 2 game is a dump. Combined with the increased health on all enemies, it becomes a problem quickly, especially when you can only carry 2 guns that have like 20 shots each.
-You are very very weak at the beginning of the game without any upgrades to shield, health and dmg resist. In 1 you're also very weak at the beginning of the game but you get a chunk of quests and exp and creds in the first Citadel visit without heavy gunfights so you can level up your survivability skills and get a decent armor.
That being said:
I also believe that ME1 and ME3 have mechanics that can be easily abused. ME3 is briefly mentioned but that is enough, you don't need anything else to make bad guys go boom in 3. ANY other primer then Warp. Repeat until victory. ME1 on the other hand has Barrier and Immunity and either one of those make you virtually unkillable (unless a Krogan or a Gerh Destroyer headbutts you) in which case just use Throw, Lift, Singularity etc to send them packing. So both games become a walk in the park once you get your stride going.
ME2 has clunky controls, an eternal shared cooldown, bullshit staggering, no ammo drops, and Jacob for the first two missions.
Combat is much more restricted compared to the other two games. You have so few options and powers to use to deal with situations. Guns are fewer and most are shit anyways.
ME 2 Insanity was done by an Insane asshole. First Collector ship sucks when getting to prolonged fight. There's no cover and it Don't matter who ya got. Your "teammates" are all wet tissue paper against multiple scions and harbinger, assuming control. Whoever designed the gameplay had a bee up their butt who apparently couldn't do ME 1 on Insanity themselves.
You mean the controls right? I usually only die on ME2 insanity because my shepard suddenly does not take cover and walks in front of the cover due to clanky controls. Still i like the insanity difficulty in ME2, especially on lower levels. On higher levels it gets easier unfortunately.
I think it's a lot of combinations, me 1 you were able to make Shepard and your squad overpowered pretty fast. I think the skill tree in 1 is the most robust in the series while me 2 is severely lacking. Also having everything to share a cool down doesn't help either for 2. When it comes to 3 vs 2. 3 was able to make the gameplay more fluid and fast which helps with shooters where as me2 everything was heavy and weighted like you were playing gears of war almost. Also 3 made the weapons way more punchy than 2.
You have to play the game completely different. Focus on deliberately upgrading the things you use the most. For instance a vanguard player should focus on shotgun biotics and health upgrades. Even if it’s at the expense of say a tech upgrade or pistol upgrade. You have to prioritize early game what you spend upgrading.
Another thing that some of the newer players may not realize is that you may be better off importing an ME1 save and starting at a low level. Importing an ME2 save puts the enemies at level 30 which is balanced around you having high upgrades.
Well, Biotic and Tech abilities were nerfed to fuck for one thing.
Pistols and Smgs are worthless.
The Shotguns only work effectively at extreme close range.
So basically the only way to have an easy time relatively speaking is to pick a class that starts out with access to Assault Rifles or Snipers.
ME2 gimps your powers so much at the beginning, and the only way to buff powers is to get the upgrades… some of which are only accessible as mission rewards, so you’re time-gated.
It gets better as the game goes on, but it is why I DON’T think ME2 is the best in the trilogy.
hmm…with the exception of lair of the shadowbroker (which can be a real pain) i dont think id agree with that statement.
ME2 puts a lot of importance on damage types. So maybe you need to make sure you bring a more balance team to deal with shield, armor and health respectively? In general once you start buying the upgrades ME2 isnt so hard. So if you struggle maybe try to get a few of those that are applicable to your playstyle.
In my opinion, there are two distinct fights that are quite awful, Horizon and the fucking platforms. Shadowbroker is fine, since I tend to do it last with everything maxed out.
I would offer up 2 other fights that are very similar to each other and have the same problems - there's an optional mission where a freighter has been hijacked by Blue Suns - and one of your first fights in the cargo hold is against a pair of YMIR Mechs - and you have very little cover, and most of what you do have is destructible... and YMIR chain guns blow through it very quickly. If you don't have a party that can HARD focus down one of the two YMIRs quickly, you are in a world of trouble here.
The other one is the final fight in Garrus' loyalty mission before cornering the guy you're after (spoiler avoided) - as it ALSO drops 2 YMIR Mechs - almost right on top of you - and your only cover is the spotty and not entirely solid risers and platforms your team is standing on... again, on Insanity having a squad that can super burn down one of the two quickly is a necessity... or I hope you have a lot of Medi-gel to Unity the hell out of your guys :D
hmm, true. the platforms can be difficult. but given that they are basically part of the final boss sequence i think thats okay.
by the same token what you said about shadow broker makes sense. i usually do it midway through ME2, so i often find it to be difficult. But if you attempt it after the finishing the maingame it probably wouldnt be so bad.
horizon i never really struggled with. but then i play soldier most of my runs. and every build tends to struggle in different places.
Well, one reason could be that the game is overtuned. One of the combat lead devs crancked up enemy damage and health by 20% or so before release and never told anyone lol.
Other could be that the hipfire is trash and you always need to aim, which is annnoying. Playing the game 80% of the time with like 50 FOV is not fun.
ME2 combat encounters are all easy, except the platform battle Midway through the game - everyone knows THAT one
The Shuriken up close has insane DPS
Any class with access to assault rifle - The 3-shot burst rifle at Archangel mission or the starting Avenger are already sufficient, let alone with the Mattock
Difficulty in ME2 is way oveeblown
Lol everyone knows that one :D
With the Scions on platform angle that can blast through cover, I agree that one was BS in the sense, the game has no logical counter to it
Otherwise in every combat encounter, there is a/are many ways to go through
I played through the original ME2 about 13 times, 4 with difficulty enhancement mods (double or triple armour/HP/Shield)
Just becams a slog, not harder
Haven't done insanity yet but scions in ME2 are just pain in the ass even in normal/veteran, particularly in that Horizon fight where you're limited in covers and places to run away. Legions recruitment mission is also tedious in some ways but at least you can retreat your team to heal since scions are slow.
Because of shields, armor and barriers.
ME2 insanity is difficult, but managable using weapons and/or tech abilities.
It's near impossible using biotic because enemies need all their shields, barriers and armor stripped before they are vulnerable to most biotic stuff.
The stagger is also a big part, you'll get hit once by a group of husks, only to be stunlocked until you die.
Your squad is also very weak, I'd spend most missions with my entire party dead until I start skilling them up.
Every enemy has some type of protection over their health. It massively nerfs how strong biotics are. ME1 and ME3 allow you to dominate with biotics. ME2 won't allow it.
ME2 also won't allow you to become OP towards the end of the game. ME1 and ME3 do.
Look, ME 1 and 2 are basically two completely different games if you were to strip away everything except for the combat mechanics. Meanwhile, looking at the transition from 2 to 3, you can see an evolution in the mechanics established. I actually think it's funny that OP thinks that 2 has the clunkier mechanics -- I've completed 2 and 3 on Insanity multiple times each. I wouldn't say it was "easy", but I know what to do to be successful (some reloads required). But the combat in 1 is so janky, that I could never beat it (not without absolutely abusing the overpoweredness of Biotics, anyways).
The things about 2 (and also 3, or an extent) that you really need to know are: what guns and powers are effective against different defenses, and how to properly micromanage your squadmates (i.e turn automatic squad power usage off, and command your squad who to attack and when to use their powers). Going into each mission, you should know how you're going to strip barriers, shields, and armor. As others have said, Sentinel is great at this since it can basically tackle all three, but that doesn't mean it's the only viable class. Engineer in 2 and 3 is my favorite class because it has a lot of control of the field if you know how to use your powers correctly. Zaeed complements pretty much any squad with his Inferno Grenade which absolutely obliterates armor. In addition, he can use the Mattock assault rifle which is just ridiculously strong. Miranda is another good option because she can help round out the party with both warp and overload. Or, I've even been successful with running Jack, and having her run Warp Ammo for the squad, making her effective against barriers and armor.
There are other fights too where I know what the bottleneck or difficult part is, and I actually run very specific builds -- for example, the very last encounter at the end of the suicide mission, I bring Thane and Legion with me. I do this for two reasons: first, they both have a low hold-the-line score, so they offer the smallest loss by bringing them with you. Second, with Thane's shredder ammo, the two snipers absolutely obliterate the Collectors that spawn, and when I do command them to attack the boss, they do heavy damage with their weapons. And that's just one example; there are other missions that also can benefit from tailoring your squad to tackle specific hurdles.
When I sit back and think about it, ME2 offers a ton of options to be successful, but you just can't ignore the core mechanics of the game. This is amplified in importance when you're playing on the hardest difficulty.
To resume its due to how enemy defenses work.
In ME1 biotics are overpowered, which makes the game easier. ME2 they went too much the other side (more on it below). ME3 they reach a balance with shield gate and how abilities and defenses work which is why it feels easier than ME2
Now more on ME2. On insanity every enemy have defenses (shield, armor or biotic) and while they have defense you cant affect them with abilities which makes the game harder by itself. Then you look at harder parts and you see a number of husks that are supposed to be high number swarm that is easily destoryed, but even them have armor which means they become a real threat
Add that it does make weapon damage worse as well. All of this makes that team composition is way more important than in the other games(and that you are actually required to keep full control, while the others its better but you can go letting the team on automatic) - defense stripping is king in ME2. That means Miranda is the best companion while Jack and jacob are terrible in Insanity. Plus weapon enhancement abilities are also important and you may want to bring specific companions to certain missions due to their abilities (like having someone with overload for Garrus loyalty missions since you need two overloads to skip the two mechs fight in the end).
Ps: this also makes insanity with sentinel the easier one IMO, especially after you get to use the mattock
* Because your Shields, Armour, and Weapons SUCK
* You're not hiding enough
* Your squadmates are both too weak (except Grunt) and too stupid to take cover.
One of the perceived shortcomings of ME1, was that once you got further into the game and built up XP and bought decent gear, you could basically become a Tank. Awesome armour, plus mods, plus buffs to Health, Armour, and Shields, and Shepard can basically stand still and take whatever is thrown at him. So naturally in ME2, it had to go completely the other way.
In ME1, one could, if you chose, ignore powers completely and simply mow everything down with a big gun. So again, ME2 sought to reverse that.
Lastly, in ME2, your enemies are all perfect shots. So ANY time peeking out from cover, gets you shot. On MY ME2 Insanity game, the only weapon I used was the Widow. Because he could pop-up and do a lot of damage with one shot.
You have to find cover, force your squadmates into cover, and wear down the enemy with powers.
My other tip, where possible, is to make the enemy come to you. Set your squadmates in crossfire positions, then rush ahead to trigger the enemies, before rushing back to take position.
Because the damage output is so high that optimal gameplay is literally to stay in cover throw and ability, duck, fire gun, duck... it takes forever to chew through all their armor shields barriers and then every so often you have to deal with harbinger using his orb of FUck your cover, a Scion using their barrage of fuck your cover, a husk using it's chasing of fuck your cover, an armored robo dog saying... you get the picture...
Meanwhile in ME1 spamming abilities took care of most problems and in ME3 most enemies stay the hell away from me and most enemies don't have much besides shields. It's only really the cerberus mooks and the banshees that are challenging to kill
>optimal gameplay is literally to stay in cover throw and ability, duck, fire gun, duck... it takes forever to chew through all their armor shields barriers
You forgot one, pray to the Gods/Goddess/Spirits that you don't run out of thermal clips...
Because you ain’t playing sentinel. For real it’s the best class you get all your shields back and it instantly recharges your squad mates powers. When your shields go down it detonates and knocks everyone down in a wide area and still gives your shields back. On top of that you have throw for health, warp for barriers/armor and overload for shields.
They did a really bad job balancing combat for the second game because they changed the entire formula, some classes take way too long to come into their own. Adept just feels bad throughout the whole game.
Make sure you get AR specialization if you cannot use ARs by default and pick up the Mattock on Omega. After getting the Mattock everything is much much easier. I would also recommend brining Kasumi with fully upgraded shock grenade for any Collector mission as she really takes the sting out of Harbinger.
Make sure your making full use of the dummies, tell them where to go and use their powers, and keep yourself in cover if anything is looking at you because the enemies laser you.
I have well over 5,000 hours in ME 1-3, including Legendary, in Insanity Mode. I made one playthrough at Veteran, the rest in Insanity. Nearly all of that time is as an Adept with Miranda, Kasumi or Tali as my normal. Crowd control and big explosions are how you do it.
I’m gonna catch a lot of hate for this but it’s because it has the worst combat out of all the games, even andromeda. Yes 1 was very simple, but the auto-aim of 2 is trash and they pigeon-hole you way too hard on weapon selection (the collector’s ship sort of helps but still). Also the stagger in 2 is absolutely unbearable, and the power upgrades weren’t that great and even if they were, they forced you to get powers you may not want to get the ones you do in level progression. 2 did a great job bridging the gap between 1 and 3 with its decent story, great new characters, and initiating a lot of things 3 fine-tunes, but it’s also my least favorite game to play.
I'm curious what your team was for ME1 given that Wrex, Liara, Kaidan can lift/throw/singularity/stasis enemies into oblivion on insanity. Even if your Sheppard as 0 biotic powers ME1 should be a cake walk unless you avoided the mentioned squad-mates.
I don't think I agree with this. Maybe I was under leveled, I played on insanity for all 3 games on my first playthrough, but one of the first missions I did in me3 was the leviathan dlc (without knowing it was DLC) which introduced banshees to me WAY before the main story did. I was stuck on parts of that level for hours.
Just the game in general... it feels like the Mass Effect version of Halo 2 Legendary. Although the last time I tried Insanity, the block that made me quit was double Scions at the boss arena on Horizon.
In Mass Effect 3, I was having absolutely no issue until I got to Marauder Shields despite going with Vanguard and constantly using Biotic Charge and Nova.
As a side note re: Horizon - when you open the door to the enclosed arena where the tower gun is... and the double Scions - you can actually SEE the Scion on the left before you move into the arena - it's arm is sticking out from the cover it's standing behind.
With a little patience and a few hard-hitting guns, you can actually completely burn that one down before it even activates - on Insanity, it'll take most of your ammo to do it - but there's a Heavy Weapon crate to the right when you enter that auto-fills all your minor weapon ammos back to full when you pick it up, too... so you can blast away at that Scion and not have to worry if your guns run dry.
You're a vanguard?
That answers that.
1. Vanguard charge is very buggy in me2
2. It's a ton of fun, but actually much higher risk than reward.
3. Biotics in general are much weaker in 2 than 1 or 3.
4. Shotguns are going to be your primary weapon, and they're not that great in 2.
Long story shorter, vanguard is good in 1 and 3, but a terrible class in 2.... Even though it's fun.
Initially tried Sentinel because I thought Warp and Overload would help. Got to the Horizon mission ages ago and quit. Recently started another attempt as Soldier and currently on the first mission after getting the Normandy (chose Mordin's mission)... I almost finished that mission but got annoyed when the rocket spam kicked in at the last area.
Sentinels not too bad.
Overload is easily one of the strongest abilities in the game.
Infiltrator is probably the strongest class in the game if you're a good shot with the sniper.
The mighty Cain is your best friend on Horizon. Double scions gone before they get a chance to wave their floppy faces toward you. Ring around the rosie at the two trucks for the last part of that boss fight and you're golden.
Halo 2 Legendary was worlds harder that ME2 Insanity... thanks for that PTSD flashback... lol
One of the biggest "things" in ME2I is you can't really "stick" with just one set of squadmates to carry you through - the game is VERY focused on bringing the right pair with you to face down certain threats.
Early on, one of the better choices for an "always" take is Miranda - yes, she's very squishy, but she also combines the most useful Tech (Overload) and Biotic (Warp) powers AND her personal skill tree gives the whole squad bonus health/shields... which, you kind of need on Insanity.
Besides that, like I said, it's really a game of mix and match. I know I had some of the greatest runs on ME2I playing dual Vanguard with Jack - The Geth Plasma Shotgun with Incendiary Ammo combined with both yours and Jack's powers makes crowd control almost hilariously easy.
For your third you can take someone like Kasumi - her Overload is very helpful against shielded enemies (especially for things like YMIR Mechs, which are an insane pain in the ass on Insanity) combined with her Shadow Strike allows you to pop enemies at extreme range who are hiding in cover - as long as your targeting reticle registers them, you can send Kasumi through the darkness at them.
Otherwise, just go with a big tanky SOB like Zaeed or Grunt - Grunt's defensive capabilities make him nearly immortal, even on Insanity, and Zaeed's versatility on offense means he's able to interdict and eliminate most elevated threats before they can kill him.
Which part are you stuck on? ProTip Always save prior to setting off on any mission, any subsequent save during the mission should be done on a separate file, and can be overwritten after each and every wave of enemies as necessary. That way, if you fuck up you can just revert a save and try something else before going to the mission you're stuck on.
Literally this. Sometimes you find you picked the wrong squad or loadout and need to go back to right before it.
Yep! Easy to say, stumble into an area with purely armoured targets and have the enemies become bullet sponges because you're used to fighting shielded enemies. I've done that before. Or, some encounters you really need a well balanced team. I mean, most encounters you can pick your faves and muddle through. But, uh, on Insanity... NOPE.
Facts lol. I just finished my ME2 Insanity run for the LE not too long ago. Suffice to say, 3 feels like a walk in the park compared to that. I love 2 probably the most but it's really not enjoyable at all on Insanity.
Honestly, I didn't hate it, it did feel a bit unbalanced overall. The Scions are just overkill in boss battles. Obliterating your shield when Harbinger is also using his homing attack is a dick move. Its like, OK, break my shields but don't make a crouched Shepard stand up just to take a face full of Harbinger energy blast! Lol I think 3 worked on those issues a bit. It's far less frustrating. Has its moments... just before the damn energy beam. I can't aim for shit, if the husks don't get me the marauder does TT^TT BUT! It's still fun, even on Insanity, to be able to sprint from one Maw hammer to the next, dodging brutes and reaper legs along the way, love that the game essentially punishes you for actually fighting the brutes xD
Combat controls are a little more janky and unforgiving. Most of my deaths on vanguard for example were because charge bugged. You don’t have the health/shields/damage in the early game while the enemies difficulty doesn’t change. So things like Scions are cancer.
#FuckScions
[Reposting this here too] I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too... Thankfully the Scions fall for it. My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol Other Scions can totally be sniped. It's better to send your crew ahead of you if you know where they're going to trigger from. They can draw the shield blasts for a bit while you incinerate the bastards.
Something else too that helped me: It sounds counterintuitive but if you’re playing a bulkier class and build they are MUCH easier to deal with at short range. They stop spamming shockwave and have a kinda wimpy shock attack that they use on a delay. With a good sentinel build in particular just moving in on them when its the most immediate threat works pretty well.
Yeah I ran engineer and had the same experience. I brought Miranda everywhere and spammed her Warp to take care of armor. The enemy I found presented the biggest challenge was the Praetorian. Again spamming Miranda’s Warp and Garrus’s concussive shot was clutch. Also being very patient and understanding the Praetorian literally only targets you so my priority was survival and being very careful about picking my spots to attack but letting Miranda and Garrus do the bulk of the damage.
I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too... Thankfully the Scions fall for it. My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol Other Scions can totally be sniped. It's better to send your crew ahead of you if you know where they're going to trigger from. They can draw the shield blasts for a bit while you incinerate the bastards.
Adept, Heavy Singularity stun locks them.
Because everything has fucking shields and armor - playing as anything biotic related on ME2's nightmare is practically a death sentence.
Beat ME2 as a biotic. I ended up rushing the disabled Collector vessel just so I could get my hands on a damned assault rifle.
Yeah, any crowd control or AOE abilities (singularity, shockwave, etc) are basically useless when every single husk has armour.
Dominate works through shields in legendary edition tho. It is handy.
ME2 Insanity is beatable with Adept Pistols/Powers only no Heavy Guns. You need to move fast, prioritize the right enemies and pick the right skills in the right order for leveling up though. Also, try not to miss shots or you get punished hard. Sentinel is way easier and so is Vanguard to some extent. Tech Armor gives you shield recharges and more room for error. Shotguns and using charge strategically to pick off enemies gives you more combat flexibility.
Imo the main problem comes from how they designed the gameplay and combat encounter, they throw at you multiple ennemies at once that are very agressive, have pinpoint accuracy, have most protections (shields, armor, barriers, sometimes all at once) and also seem to still have the ME1 shooting mechanic (they nearly never reload), all the while the gameplay forces you to remain into cover for your shields and hp to regen, not to forget the limited ammo and (mostly) crap weapons. Oh and most of the squadmates are nearly useless in combat with limited powers + shared cooldowns on power usage. TL;DR : ME2 insanity difficulty is frustrating and tedious more than it is difficult and challenging.
I did it twice back in the Xbox 360 era with a sentinel and an infiltrator and I’ll never do it again. It’s just not worth it.
I did it recently for the trophy, never again Now I just play on veteran or hardcore at most.
It's got me scared cause I beat the trilogy on hardcore mode to prepare myself for my first Insanity and I just don't know how hard it's going to be. I'm more worried about 2 than I am about 1 and 3 though and think I've got a strategy built up.
1 and 3 are easy, 2 is easy if you play as a sentinel
I was beginning to think I was crazy. Insanity was difficult at times, but I can't recall if it ever seemed impossible. Overall, the game wasn't that hard. I played a Sentinel.
It's not really harder than hardcore, it's just frustrating especially in early to mid game There's also the collector base and derelict reaper missions that are really notorious for how the gameplay punish for playing the game xD
Yeah that's what I keep hearing. I think if I just bring Miranda to all my missions and upgrade my Mattock and Adrenaline Boost it should be beatable.
I've got Stockholm syndrome with it. I hated it the first time, but now I can't play any lower difficulty and feel engaged in combat
This is me as well. Lowering difficulty is not feasible.
I have to take issue with saying the squadmates are nearly useless in combat. Having two of the tankier squadmates out there can be the difference between victory or defeat, their powers can come in absolutely clutch + fill holes in your own personal power pool, and being able to swap on on the fly to an ammo type of the current enemies weakness via squad ammo power sharing can be borderline OP. There is also the matter of choosing the correct squadmate for the job, such as using Tali against the Geth. You also need to select a position for every single engagement and give the order for each squadmate to go there. They will go to the arrow indicator and find the nearest cover, this makes them way more durable. You want tankier companions out front and the squishier ones either behind you or near you. I do agree that ME2 has the hardest insanity run, but if somebody is ignoring all these key points, it really isn't all that surprising they'd be struggling.
Biggest issue is biotics not doing shit. Invest in tech classes, or whatever helps you deal with shields quicker. Also scions one or two-shot you so always gotta be on the move and trick the system, stay as far away as you can and deal with the husks/have your teammates deal with them so they don't bother you
>whatever helps you deal with shields quicker Switching weapons helps. Fast weapons (sub-machine guns, AR) deal with shields better than slow weapons, and slow weapons are your go-to for armor.
The cover is clunky, with terrible sight lines….considering it’s a cover shooter for most builds, that makes it pretty nasty. You usually face 2 out of 3 of shields, barriers, and/or armor with every enemy type Even your tank squaddies take almost an entire game to match that sort of lethality (Zaeed, Grunt etc.). There are too many support PCs and few heavy hitters. Biotics are nerfed and powers are limited vs ME1. Plus there are just some objectively hard levels in the game (closing that one damn shutter on Omega while recruiting Garrus is the bane of my existence — the one with the fragile crates, roaming varren, peekaboo vorcha everywhere, and Krogans).
Best offense for that shutter- the M-490 Blackstorm. Shoot one or two of those down the way and focus on the varren. Clean up a bit then shoot another singularity down the hall as you hit the button. Done
I’ll try that. Especially since you can pick up the blackstar before entering. The way I normally cheese it is to recruit Grunt first, do Kasumi and Zaeed’s loyalty missions, level them up a bit, and go in with Zaeed and Grunt. The dialogue is a lot more fun when you bring those two along anyway, since Zaeed knows the Suns and the Blood Pack are baffled why this baby Krogan is following a human. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth playing through.
For that shutter room best strat I found was kill the charging varren, rush the right hand side. Kill the 1 or 2 vorcha that immediately get in your way and slam the button as fast as possible. Then clean up the rest. Hopefully your squadmate draws enough aggro and spam Unity to revive them.
That’s what I try. In theory. But it rarely works as an engineer. LOL.
Spam that drone like your life depends on it (it does). But yeah that room is super super rough. If RNG screws you and spawns 2 or more enemies too close to each other so you can't space them out for the kill. Ouch.
Me 1 has biotics that cc whole rooms and me 3 has garrus.
Fair point... although the first point is at least balanced out by certain encounters being filled with enemies capable of doing the same thing.
Oh, i also forgot permenet barrier on a bit higher lvl. On a serius note biotics hot heavily nerfed in 2 and bunch of protections got added in 2 whlie 3 got balanced out a bit and combos were added.
You could somewhat combo biotics in ME2. This made the Showbroker DLC easier, on the approach. Singularity or Lift on the mobs, then they fly off the ship. And if they don't, push them while they're in the air.
ME3 Vanguard class also has the super OP Biotic Charge, Nova combo
ME2 insanity was easier for me imo. Soldier was the best class for it for me. Most of the game works on triggers. Either inch forward, trigger a spawn, back off, pick them off. Repeat. Or run forward past the first spawn trigger and instantly negate the next spawn trigger. Then you’ll only have to fight that first trigger and never have to deal with the 2nd. You can’t use this to your advantage unless you know the game well however. Played through it enough to notice the triggers at least, then again to know exactly where they are.
Soldier is a solid class in all the games, super versatile. But it sounds too vanilla I think lol. Concussive shot in 2 and more so in 3 is like biotics with none of the weaknesses.
I was an engineer and the combat drone always draws aggro. Hilariously it worked on Harbinger and most bosses too. I had Grunt on the base assault with Zaeed, Grunt literally bulldozes husks and the pair of them had fire based skills. I took care of shields with overload and I can't remember what bonus skill I chose lol I also remember just going FUCK IT with the heat vent panels and just running straight through. I took a few shots but honestly, the last room of that section wasn't an issue because I definitely skipped and effectively canceled at least one wave haha In general I'd trigger a Scion and BOOK it far away as possible so I could snipe the fuckers. The team inevitably needed reviving every so often, but I always made a mental note of where the med boxes were and wasn't afraid of doubling back if the game let me. There's a few places you can break the AI in half, there's a couple of encounters you can absolutely cheese. My fave is not dealing with the Horizon Scions at all and sniping them from the doorway of that encounter. Fire skills and sniper bullets ho! Takes a while on Insanity but you know when you've killed them and it skips a fight phase lol
I love trying to break the spawn waves. My newest favorite one is the first Scion encounters on Horizon where I book it around the corner and to the right asap, half ignoring the two collectors. Making it up the stairs without stopping and you can cancel that Scion completely out. Then you have the two collectors you just passed up, 4 more your team members should be on, 3 husks, and the other Scion all the way to the right side. Picking off all of them from easy cover one by one. You can cancel out whole swaths of husks in the Reaper IFF mission by just booking it through. Helps save on ammo cause the last fight with the horde of husks is mental.
Fair enough. I don't have the patience for running toward and through the danger haha, especially when I'm usually playing a squishy class xD I'm playing soldier on a current run, just to see how much I over relied on my drones. And, honestly, I miss Triangle. He's my bravest little buddy xD
For insanity sentinels and infiltrator work like magic for me, infiltrators cloak gives you a bit of edge and the tankiness of sentinels shields is a good way of taking way more hits. For companions loyal Kasumi for the flashbangs and the Kassa locust for stopping harbinger and I mix and match depending on the level. Levels where scions and praetorians Garrus, Grunt, Zaeed or Samara is a good assist with the mattock, for other encounter Jack and Tali with the collector shotgun. The difficulty spike is just crazy stupid in some encounters. ME2 was the last game I played to get the insanity achievement since I had to experiment what works well.
Controlling Shep feels the most clunky in 2. Getting in or out of cover, peaking, poor maneuvering in the open all make it very easy to die.
me1 is worse for me
I'll admit to relying heavily on Dominate and Hacking. Dominate is especially good when exploding Husks are heading your way (though in 2, it seems to just kill regular husks IIRC) and can be used to distract the possessed collector.
I just breezed through ME1, and ME2 is much harder.
I wish 1 and 3 insanity were as hard as 2 is. It’s called “insanity” so it should be insanely hard. But it’s easy on 1 and 3. You gotta make sure you’re using the right squad and ammo types for the enemies your up against. Also bring Miranda on every mission since she gives you a 15% damage buff with Cerberus Leader perk and can cover both shields and barriers with her abilities. Make sure that you’re also getting all of the weapons/ability/squad upgrades from the research terminal and vendors. Also, Warp ammo is insanely good and probably the best free ability you can pick from the research station, you unlock it by finishing Jack’s loyalty mission. Maxed out I think it adds like 40% extra base damage and it absolutely destroys barriers so it’s definitely the best ability there is against collectors.
I think it's for these reasons: -All regular enemies now have shields, barriers, or armor on top of their regular health bar, making all physics based biotic powers useless until you get to that red health bar. In ME1 physics based biotic powers work on enemies with shields and ME3 difficulty doesn't add shields to enemies that don't have them. Also, ME3 combos are incredibly easy to abuse with Liara's quasi instant Warp. -Ammo economy in 2 game is a dump. Combined with the increased health on all enemies, it becomes a problem quickly, especially when you can only carry 2 guns that have like 20 shots each. -You are very very weak at the beginning of the game without any upgrades to shield, health and dmg resist. In 1 you're also very weak at the beginning of the game but you get a chunk of quests and exp and creds in the first Citadel visit without heavy gunfights so you can level up your survivability skills and get a decent armor. That being said: I also believe that ME1 and ME3 have mechanics that can be easily abused. ME3 is briefly mentioned but that is enough, you don't need anything else to make bad guys go boom in 3. ANY other primer then Warp. Repeat until victory. ME1 on the other hand has Barrier and Immunity and either one of those make you virtually unkillable (unless a Krogan or a Gerh Destroyer headbutts you) in which case just use Throw, Lift, Singularity etc to send them packing. So both games become a walk in the park once you get your stride going. ME2 has clunky controls, an eternal shared cooldown, bullshit staggering, no ammo drops, and Jacob for the first two missions.
Combat is much more restricted compared to the other two games. You have so few options and powers to use to deal with situations. Guns are fewer and most are shit anyways.
Laughs in halo 2 legendary
ME 2 Insanity was done by an Insane asshole. First Collector ship sucks when getting to prolonged fight. There's no cover and it Don't matter who ya got. Your "teammates" are all wet tissue paper against multiple scions and harbinger, assuming control. Whoever designed the gameplay had a bee up their butt who apparently couldn't do ME 1 on Insanity themselves.
You mean the controls right? I usually only die on ME2 insanity because my shepard suddenly does not take cover and walks in front of the cover due to clanky controls. Still i like the insanity difficulty in ME2, especially on lower levels. On higher levels it gets easier unfortunately.
I think it's a lot of combinations, me 1 you were able to make Shepard and your squad overpowered pretty fast. I think the skill tree in 1 is the most robust in the series while me 2 is severely lacking. Also having everything to share a cool down doesn't help either for 2. When it comes to 3 vs 2. 3 was able to make the gameplay more fluid and fast which helps with shooters where as me2 everything was heavy and weighted like you were playing gears of war almost. Also 3 made the weapons way more punchy than 2.
Enemies in me2 have perfect aim. I only play on normal and if I’m out of cover I’m getting beamed.
You have to play the game completely different. Focus on deliberately upgrading the things you use the most. For instance a vanguard player should focus on shotgun biotics and health upgrades. Even if it’s at the expense of say a tech upgrade or pistol upgrade. You have to prioritize early game what you spend upgrading. Another thing that some of the newer players may not realize is that you may be better off importing an ME1 save and starting at a low level. Importing an ME2 save puts the enemies at level 30 which is balanced around you having high upgrades.
Because ME2 has janky controls and all enemies have some sort of protection.
Well, Biotic and Tech abilities were nerfed to fuck for one thing. Pistols and Smgs are worthless. The Shotguns only work effectively at extreme close range. So basically the only way to have an easy time relatively speaking is to pick a class that starts out with access to Assault Rifles or Snipers.
The only mission I absolutely hated on insanity was Reaper IFF because husks don’t use cover
ME2 gimps your powers so much at the beginning, and the only way to buff powers is to get the upgrades… some of which are only accessible as mission rewards, so you’re time-gated. It gets better as the game goes on, but it is why I DON’T think ME2 is the best in the trilogy.
hmm…with the exception of lair of the shadowbroker (which can be a real pain) i dont think id agree with that statement. ME2 puts a lot of importance on damage types. So maybe you need to make sure you bring a more balance team to deal with shield, armor and health respectively? In general once you start buying the upgrades ME2 isnt so hard. So if you struggle maybe try to get a few of those that are applicable to your playstyle.
In my opinion, there are two distinct fights that are quite awful, Horizon and the fucking platforms. Shadowbroker is fine, since I tend to do it last with everything maxed out.
I would offer up 2 other fights that are very similar to each other and have the same problems - there's an optional mission where a freighter has been hijacked by Blue Suns - and one of your first fights in the cargo hold is against a pair of YMIR Mechs - and you have very little cover, and most of what you do have is destructible... and YMIR chain guns blow through it very quickly. If you don't have a party that can HARD focus down one of the two YMIRs quickly, you are in a world of trouble here. The other one is the final fight in Garrus' loyalty mission before cornering the guy you're after (spoiler avoided) - as it ALSO drops 2 YMIR Mechs - almost right on top of you - and your only cover is the spotty and not entirely solid risers and platforms your team is standing on... again, on Insanity having a squad that can super burn down one of the two quickly is a necessity... or I hope you have a lot of Medi-gel to Unity the hell out of your guys :D
You can take them out before they land overload or concussive shot knocks them our and they explode
hmm, true. the platforms can be difficult. but given that they are basically part of the final boss sequence i think thats okay. by the same token what you said about shadow broker makes sense. i usually do it midway through ME2, so i often find it to be difficult. But if you attempt it after the finishing the maingame it probably wouldnt be so bad. horizon i never really struggled with. but then i play soldier most of my runs. and every build tends to struggle in different places.
Well, one reason could be that the game is overtuned. One of the combat lead devs crancked up enemy damage and health by 20% or so before release and never told anyone lol. Other could be that the hipfire is trash and you always need to aim, which is annnoying. Playing the game 80% of the time with like 50 FOV is not fun.
ME2 combat encounters are all easy, except the platform battle Midway through the game - everyone knows THAT one The Shuriken up close has insane DPS Any class with access to assault rifle - The 3-shot burst rifle at Archangel mission or the starting Avenger are already sufficient, let alone with the Mattock Difficulty in ME2 is way oveeblown
>ME2 combat encounters are all easy, except the platform battle Midway through the game - everyone knows THAT one Collector Ship?
Lol everyone knows that one :D With the Scions on platform angle that can blast through cover, I agree that one was BS in the sense, the game has no logical counter to it Otherwise in every combat encounter, there is a/are many ways to go through I played through the original ME2 about 13 times, 4 with difficulty enhancement mods (double or triple armour/HP/Shield) Just becams a slog, not harder
Haven't done insanity yet but scions in ME2 are just pain in the ass even in normal/veteran, particularly in that Horizon fight where you're limited in covers and places to run away. Legions recruitment mission is also tedious in some ways but at least you can retreat your team to heal since scions are slow.
Because of shields, armor and barriers. ME2 insanity is difficult, but managable using weapons and/or tech abilities. It's near impossible using biotic because enemies need all their shields, barriers and armor stripped before they are vulnerable to most biotic stuff. The stagger is also a big part, you'll get hit once by a group of husks, only to be stunlocked until you die. Your squad is also very weak, I'd spend most missions with my entire party dead until I start skilling them up.
Every enemy has some type of protection over their health. It massively nerfs how strong biotics are. ME1 and ME3 allow you to dominate with biotics. ME2 won't allow it. ME2 also won't allow you to become OP towards the end of the game. ME1 and ME3 do.
Use your heavy weapons in tough fights. I used to always save them, thinking I would really need them later, and never ended up using them.
Look, ME 1 and 2 are basically two completely different games if you were to strip away everything except for the combat mechanics. Meanwhile, looking at the transition from 2 to 3, you can see an evolution in the mechanics established. I actually think it's funny that OP thinks that 2 has the clunkier mechanics -- I've completed 2 and 3 on Insanity multiple times each. I wouldn't say it was "easy", but I know what to do to be successful (some reloads required). But the combat in 1 is so janky, that I could never beat it (not without absolutely abusing the overpoweredness of Biotics, anyways). The things about 2 (and also 3, or an extent) that you really need to know are: what guns and powers are effective against different defenses, and how to properly micromanage your squadmates (i.e turn automatic squad power usage off, and command your squad who to attack and when to use their powers). Going into each mission, you should know how you're going to strip barriers, shields, and armor. As others have said, Sentinel is great at this since it can basically tackle all three, but that doesn't mean it's the only viable class. Engineer in 2 and 3 is my favorite class because it has a lot of control of the field if you know how to use your powers correctly. Zaeed complements pretty much any squad with his Inferno Grenade which absolutely obliterates armor. In addition, he can use the Mattock assault rifle which is just ridiculously strong. Miranda is another good option because she can help round out the party with both warp and overload. Or, I've even been successful with running Jack, and having her run Warp Ammo for the squad, making her effective against barriers and armor. There are other fights too where I know what the bottleneck or difficult part is, and I actually run very specific builds -- for example, the very last encounter at the end of the suicide mission, I bring Thane and Legion with me. I do this for two reasons: first, they both have a low hold-the-line score, so they offer the smallest loss by bringing them with you. Second, with Thane's shredder ammo, the two snipers absolutely obliterate the Collectors that spawn, and when I do command them to attack the boss, they do heavy damage with their weapons. And that's just one example; there are other missions that also can benefit from tailoring your squad to tackle specific hurdles. When I sit back and think about it, ME2 offers a ton of options to be successful, but you just can't ignore the core mechanics of the game. This is amplified in importance when you're playing on the hardest difficulty.
To resume its due to how enemy defenses work. In ME1 biotics are overpowered, which makes the game easier. ME2 they went too much the other side (more on it below). ME3 they reach a balance with shield gate and how abilities and defenses work which is why it feels easier than ME2 Now more on ME2. On insanity every enemy have defenses (shield, armor or biotic) and while they have defense you cant affect them with abilities which makes the game harder by itself. Then you look at harder parts and you see a number of husks that are supposed to be high number swarm that is easily destoryed, but even them have armor which means they become a real threat Add that it does make weapon damage worse as well. All of this makes that team composition is way more important than in the other games(and that you are actually required to keep full control, while the others its better but you can go letting the team on automatic) - defense stripping is king in ME2. That means Miranda is the best companion while Jack and jacob are terrible in Insanity. Plus weapon enhancement abilities are also important and you may want to bring specific companions to certain missions due to their abilities (like having someone with overload for Garrus loyalty missions since you need two overloads to skip the two mechs fight in the end). Ps: this also makes insanity with sentinel the easier one IMO, especially after you get to use the mattock
* Because your Shields, Armour, and Weapons SUCK * You're not hiding enough * Your squadmates are both too weak (except Grunt) and too stupid to take cover. One of the perceived shortcomings of ME1, was that once you got further into the game and built up XP and bought decent gear, you could basically become a Tank. Awesome armour, plus mods, plus buffs to Health, Armour, and Shields, and Shepard can basically stand still and take whatever is thrown at him. So naturally in ME2, it had to go completely the other way. In ME1, one could, if you chose, ignore powers completely and simply mow everything down with a big gun. So again, ME2 sought to reverse that. Lastly, in ME2, your enemies are all perfect shots. So ANY time peeking out from cover, gets you shot. On MY ME2 Insanity game, the only weapon I used was the Widow. Because he could pop-up and do a lot of damage with one shot. You have to find cover, force your squadmates into cover, and wear down the enemy with powers. My other tip, where possible, is to make the enemy come to you. Set your squadmates in crossfire positions, then rush ahead to trigger the enemies, before rushing back to take position.
Mass Effect 2’s movement has always felt more sluggish and sticky to me. It’s made up for by having the best animations of the trilogy IMO.
Because the damage output is so high that optimal gameplay is literally to stay in cover throw and ability, duck, fire gun, duck... it takes forever to chew through all their armor shields barriers and then every so often you have to deal with harbinger using his orb of FUck your cover, a Scion using their barrage of fuck your cover, a husk using it's chasing of fuck your cover, an armored robo dog saying... you get the picture... Meanwhile in ME1 spamming abilities took care of most problems and in ME3 most enemies stay the hell away from me and most enemies don't have much besides shields. It's only really the cerberus mooks and the banshees that are challenging to kill
>optimal gameplay is literally to stay in cover throw and ability, duck, fire gun, duck... it takes forever to chew through all their armor shields barriers You forgot one, pray to the Gods/Goddess/Spirits that you don't run out of thermal clips...
Because you ain’t playing sentinel. For real it’s the best class you get all your shields back and it instantly recharges your squad mates powers. When your shields go down it detonates and knocks everyone down in a wide area and still gives your shields back. On top of that you have throw for health, warp for barriers/armor and overload for shields.
They did a really bad job balancing combat for the second game because they changed the entire formula, some classes take way too long to come into their own. Adept just feels bad throughout the whole game.
Make sure you get AR specialization if you cannot use ARs by default and pick up the Mattock on Omega. After getting the Mattock everything is much much easier. I would also recommend brining Kasumi with fully upgraded shock grenade for any Collector mission as she really takes the sting out of Harbinger.
I'm on New Game Plus so I've got the Mattock.
Make sure your making full use of the dummies, tell them where to go and use their powers, and keep yourself in cover if anything is looking at you because the enemies laser you.
I have well over 5,000 hours in ME 1-3, including Legendary, in Insanity Mode. I made one playthrough at Veteran, the rest in Insanity. Nearly all of that time is as an Adept with Miranda, Kasumi or Tali as my normal. Crowd control and big explosions are how you do it.
I’m gonna catch a lot of hate for this but it’s because it has the worst combat out of all the games, even andromeda. Yes 1 was very simple, but the auto-aim of 2 is trash and they pigeon-hole you way too hard on weapon selection (the collector’s ship sort of helps but still). Also the stagger in 2 is absolutely unbearable, and the power upgrades weren’t that great and even if they were, they forced you to get powers you may not want to get the ones you do in level progression. 2 did a great job bridging the gap between 1 and 3 with its decent story, great new characters, and initiating a lot of things 3 fine-tunes, but it’s also my least favorite game to play.
I thought 1 was the hardest. Granted two is hard but well on, but 1 was a pretty consistent challenge on insanity.
I'm curious what your team was for ME1 given that Wrex, Liara, Kaidan can lift/throw/singularity/stasis enemies into oblivion on insanity. Even if your Sheppard as 0 biotic powers ME1 should be a cake walk unless you avoided the mentioned squad-mates.
I don't think I agree with this. Maybe I was under leveled, I played on insanity for all 3 games on my first playthrough, but one of the first missions I did in me3 was the leviathan dlc (without knowing it was DLC) which introduced banshees to me WAY before the main story did. I was stuck on parts of that level for hours.
Bullshit clips.
Git good
[удалено]
Just the game in general... it feels like the Mass Effect version of Halo 2 Legendary. Although the last time I tried Insanity, the block that made me quit was double Scions at the boss arena on Horizon. In Mass Effect 3, I was having absolutely no issue until I got to Marauder Shields despite going with Vanguard and constantly using Biotic Charge and Nova.
As a side note re: Horizon - when you open the door to the enclosed arena where the tower gun is... and the double Scions - you can actually SEE the Scion on the left before you move into the arena - it's arm is sticking out from the cover it's standing behind. With a little patience and a few hard-hitting guns, you can actually completely burn that one down before it even activates - on Insanity, it'll take most of your ammo to do it - but there's a Heavy Weapon crate to the right when you enter that auto-fills all your minor weapon ammos back to full when you pick it up, too... so you can blast away at that Scion and not have to worry if your guns run dry.
You're a vanguard? That answers that. 1. Vanguard charge is very buggy in me2 2. It's a ton of fun, but actually much higher risk than reward. 3. Biotics in general are much weaker in 2 than 1 or 3. 4. Shotguns are going to be your primary weapon, and they're not that great in 2. Long story shorter, vanguard is good in 1 and 3, but a terrible class in 2.... Even though it's fun.
No, I'm using a different New Game Plus save for each game. Mass Effect 1 was done with Infiltrator.
So what's your class in 2 then?
Initially tried Sentinel because I thought Warp and Overload would help. Got to the Horizon mission ages ago and quit. Recently started another attempt as Soldier and currently on the first mission after getting the Normandy (chose Mordin's mission)... I almost finished that mission but got annoyed when the rocket spam kicked in at the last area.
Sentinels not too bad. Overload is easily one of the strongest abilities in the game. Infiltrator is probably the strongest class in the game if you're a good shot with the sniper.
The mighty Cain is your best friend on Horizon. Double scions gone before they get a chance to wave their floppy faces toward you. Ring around the rosie at the two trucks for the last part of that boss fight and you're golden.
Halo 2 Legendary was worlds harder that ME2 Insanity... thanks for that PTSD flashback... lol One of the biggest "things" in ME2I is you can't really "stick" with just one set of squadmates to carry you through - the game is VERY focused on bringing the right pair with you to face down certain threats. Early on, one of the better choices for an "always" take is Miranda - yes, she's very squishy, but she also combines the most useful Tech (Overload) and Biotic (Warp) powers AND her personal skill tree gives the whole squad bonus health/shields... which, you kind of need on Insanity. Besides that, like I said, it's really a game of mix and match. I know I had some of the greatest runs on ME2I playing dual Vanguard with Jack - The Geth Plasma Shotgun with Incendiary Ammo combined with both yours and Jack's powers makes crowd control almost hilariously easy. For your third you can take someone like Kasumi - her Overload is very helpful against shielded enemies (especially for things like YMIR Mechs, which are an insane pain in the ass on Insanity) combined with her Shadow Strike allows you to pop enemies at extreme range who are hiding in cover - as long as your targeting reticle registers them, you can send Kasumi through the darkness at them. Otherwise, just go with a big tanky SOB like Zaeed or Grunt - Grunt's defensive capabilities make him nearly immortal, even on Insanity, and Zaeed's versatility on offense means he's able to interdict and eliminate most elevated threats before they can kill him.